For free-space optical communication using infrared radiation, broadband radiation receivers with an electrical bandwidth of for instance 30 kHz to 500 kHz are desirable, which may detect optical pulses with a pulse width of greater than or equal to 1 μs. It has been shown, however, that such receivers often only operate reliably at small ranges of less than a meter. At greater distances ambient light may lead to spurious signals. This is the case in particular with ambient light produced by fluorescent lamps based on the gas discharge principle. Greater ranges may be achieved by electrically narrowband radiation receivers. These reception concepts however explicitly require a known modulation frequency or a known modulation format and are only suitable for this specific use.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a radiation receiver apparatus having both broad usability and at the same time reliable signal acquisition.